Razor Returns review
Razor Returns is Push Gaming’s follow-up to the famous Razor Shark, released on 4 July 2023. The sharks are back with metal jaws and gold teeth, and the reef looks noticeably sharper. The grid has grown to 5×5 with 40 paylines, the mystery reef symbols now bring multipliers, collectors and converters, and free spins can start with a boosted multiplier. The studio treated it as one of its most anticipated launches: the 2019 original had a reputation for brutal volatility, and the sequel deliberately keeps that edge.
Forty lines and five-symbol stacks
The Push Gaming release of 4 July 2023 uses a 5×5 board, forty fixed lines and stakes of 0.1–100. Matches of at least three count from the leftmost reel. Four low objects are an anchor, compass, periscope and helmet; four premiums are sharks. Wilds on any reel replace paying symbols, but not Mysteries, torpedoes or instant prizes. The coefficients below use the total stake.
| Symbol | 5 on a line | 4 on a line | 3 on a line |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wild shark | 12.5x | 4x | 1x |
| Top shark | 7.5x | 2.5x | 0.6x |
| Second shark | 6x | 2x | 0.5x |
| Third shark | 3x | 0.8x | 0.3x |
| Fourth shark | 2.5x | 0.7x | 0.2x |
| Two higher objects | 1x | 0.3x | 0.1x |
| Two lower objects | 0.8x | 0.2x | 0.1x |
An all-Wild board before a feature multiplier pays 40×12.5 = 500x. This prices ordinary lines rather than setting the whole game’s ceiling. Five Mysteries can stack on any reel, revealing an ordinary symbol, a Wild or Golden Shark. Line wins pay immediately. In regular play, the following nudges occur on paid spins: after full visibility, four, three, two and one cells remain before the stack leaves. A nudge itself awards no free spin.
Razor Reveal: reveal and refill
Each golden position becomes a mini-reel. Instant prizes are 1,2,5,10,25,50,100,250,500,1,000,2,500 or 5,000 bets. Multipliers of 2x,3x,5x or 10x boost every visible prize and collector, then disappear and free their positions for respins. A collector gathers other prizes and becomes their sum at the end of the respin; collected cells refill too. All remaining prizes and collectors add together at the end.
A converter selects one ordinary type and turns every matching symbol into a golden position, continuing the reveal; they revert to ordinary symbols on the next round. A torpedo Scatter counts towards free spins and the existing field’s total. Nudge Up appears only in the feature and raises stacks by one position.
Illustrative example: prizes ten and five, a converter affecting four compasses, new prizes twenty-five and two, a 3x multiplier and a collector. Boosted values become thirty, fifteen, seventy-five and six; the collector gathers 126. This is an intermediate amount because cleared positions respin. The collected thirty, fifteen, seventy-five and six cannot be added to the same collector again.
Free spins and the starting-multiplier wheel
Three, four or five torpedoes set starting multipliers of 1x,5x or 25x. In free spins, reels two and four fill with Mysteries. Each shared downward nudge adds one to the overall multiplier rather than one per stack. It applies to the entire win at spin end and persists between spins. The final nudge that removes the stacks does not increase it. New Mysteries and Nudge Up can extend the round.
From a 5x start, without new stacks or Nudge Up, the five successive spins show 4→3→2→1→0 cells and multipliers of 6x,7x,8x,9x,9x. Before the round, the wheel offers a gamble of the whole feature: failure forfeits it, while success raises the start and permits another gamble, up to five successful steps. The ladder is 1x,5x,10x,25x,50x,100x; sector weights are undisclosed.
Push Bet, buys and mode RTPs
Push Bet increases spin cost by 10% and improves free-spin probability by an unspecified factor; pays use the base stake. It is unavailable above the maximum and switches off before a buy. The bonus buy options below apply to the 96.55% build.
The 94.49% build’s prices, in the same order, are 108x,190x,562x,200x and 510x; its exact buy RTPs are not listed. Gambling reduces RTP for all five table options, including Razor Reveal from 96.68% to 96.66%. Main-game pairs for the 96.55%/94.49% builds are: no Push Bet or gamble,96.55%/94.49%; Push Bet without gambling,96.55%/94.74%; no Push Bet with always-gamble,96.24%/94.20%; both,96.16%/94.37%. Always-gamble describes a calculation mode rather than one wheel attempt’s RTP.
The ceiling and other sharks
The 100,000x round ceiling is included in theoretical RTP through trimming of excess awards; an operator may impose a lower limit. Early termination is not described. A 5,000x prize under a 20x feature multiplier arithmetically reaches the cap, without proving an exclusive route or its frequency. Volatility is high; hit and feature rates are unspecified. Other limits appear in the max win rankings.
The 2019 original Razor Shark used 5×4, twenty lines, four-high stacks, coins up to 2,500x and a 50,000x cap, without buys or Push Bet. Big Bamboo supplied the collector, converter and multiplier ideas. Razor Ways has up to 46,656 ways; Shark Jackpots followed in 2026. Other releases appear on the Push Gaming page.
